Systems and methods for modifying search results based on a user&#39;s history

ABSTRACT

A user&#39;s prior searching and browsing activities are recorded for subsequent use. A user may examine the user&#39;s prior searching and browsing activities in a number of different ways, including indications of the user&#39;s prior activities related to advertisements. A set of search results may be modified in accordance with the user&#39;s historical activities. The user&#39;s activities may be examined to identify a set of preferred locations. The user&#39;s set of activities may be shared with one or more other users. The set of preferred locations presented to the user may be enhanced to include the preferred locations of one or more other users. A user&#39;s browsing activities may be monitored from one or more different client devices or client application. A user&#39;s browsing volume may be graphically displayed.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to the fields of a searching andbrowsing a computer network system, in particular to systems and methodsof using user information to customize a user's searching and browsingenvironment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Search engines typically provide a source of indexed documents from theInternet (or an intranet) that can be rapidly scanned in response to asearch query submitted by a user. As the number of documents accessiblevia the Internet grows, the number of documents that match a particularquery may also increase. However, not every document matching the queryis likely to be equally important from the user's perspective. A usermay be overwhelmed by an enormous number of documents returned by asearch engine, unless the documents are ordered based on their relevanceto the user's query. One way to order documents is the PageRankalgorithm more fully described in the article “The Anatomy of aLarge-Scale Hypertextual Search Engine” by S. Brin and L. Page, 7^(th)International World Wide Web Conference, Brisbane, Australia and U.S.Pat. No. 6,285,999, both of which are hereby incorporated by referenceas background information.

Over time, a user will have executed a history of search queries,results which were examined, advertisements that were clicked on, andother various browsing activities which reflect the user's preferencesand interests. Oftentimes a user may be interested in examining theuser's such prior activities. It would be desirable to permit the userto use the prior activities to enhance the user's searching and browsingexperience.

SUMMARY

According to some embodiments of the invention, methods of and systemsfor using a set of historical activities to modify a response to asearch request include receiving a submitted search query from a searchrequester. Search results are obtained relevant to the submitted searchquery from a document repository, where each search result has anassociated search result ranking value. At least one of the searchresults is identified as having been returned to a previous searchrequester in response to a previous search query. The associated searchresult ranking value of the identified search result is modified and theobtained search results are ordered in accordance with the modifiedsearch result ranking value.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The aforementioned aspects of the invention as well as additionalaspects thereof will be more clearly understood from the followingdetailed description of embodiments of the invention when taken inconjunction with the drawings, in which like reference numerals refer tocorresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings

FIG. 1 illustrates a client-server network environment according to someembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 depicts a process flow for receiving and storing informationaccording to some embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 3 depicts a process for receiving subscription informationaccording to some embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 4 depicts a process for receiving history or profile editinformation according to some embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 5 depicts a user record in a data structure according to someembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 6 depicts a process for processing a history search query andmatching information from a history log according to some embodiments ofthe invention.

FIG. 7 depicts a process for processing a history search query accordingto some embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 8A depicts an exemplary screenshot of one method of presenting auser's prior history according to some embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 8B depicts an exemplary screenshot of another way to present auser's prior history according to some embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 9 depicts a process for processing a search query according to someembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 10 depicts an exemplary screenshot of one method of presenting auser's prior history according to some embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 11 depicts an exemplary screenshot of a graphical display of auser's activity over a period of time according to some embodiments ofthe invention.

FIG. 12 depicts a process of creating a graphical display of a user'sactivity over a period of time according to some embodiments of theinvention.

FIG. 13 depicts a process of identifying a set of favorites according tosome embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 14 depicts a process of modifying ranking values according to someembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 15A depicts a process for combining a user set of preferredlocations with another set of locations according to some embodiments ofthe invention.

FIG. 15B depicts a process for creating a combined set of preferredlocations according to some embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 16 depicts a process for managing multiple sources of browsinginformation according to some embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 17 illustrates a client system according to some embodiments of theinvention.

FIG. 18 illustrates a server system according to some embodiments of theinvention.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

A user's computing environment may be enhanced by permitting the user tosearch and/or browse the user's past searching and/or browsingactivities, as well as use those past activities to enhance a set ofsearch results. Some embodiments are associated with the collection andstorage of a user's activities in a user information database. In someembodiments, the activities may be one or more of various types of useractivity, including, but not limited to) submitting search queries to asearch engine, selecting (e.g., by clicking on) results returned fromthe search engine, selecting various advertisements returned with theresults from the search engine, selecting other informational itemspresented on a search results page, browsing various web pages orlocations, clicking through on advertisements on the browsed pages,reviewing product reviews and other user browsing activities monitoredvia a number of different ways, or other activities associated withvarious client applications such as (but not limited to) instantmessaging, chat rooms participation, email management, document creationand editing, or any generalized file activity (such activitiescollectively referred to as “prior activities”. According to someembodiments, the collected history is used to create one or more derivedpieces of information.

As the user's historical information (and also derived information whenavailable) is created, the information may be examined in any number ofways and may also be used to modify the searching and/or browsingexperience of the user. According to some embodiments, a user's prioractivities are used to identify a user's preferences with respect tocertain locations (e.g., web sites, document on a network, etc.). Thesepreferences are used to create an ordered set of preferred locations forthe user. In some embodiments, the user's preferred locations may beshared and/or integrated with one or more other users. In someembodiments, a user's prior activities during specified time periods maybe graphically displayed. In some embodiments, a user's prior activitiesare used to modify a set of search results returned from a documentrepository. In some embodiments, a user's prior prior activities may beused to modify the results from a search engine. For example, resultsthat the user had previously visited may be moved up in the order ofsearch results. In some embodiments, the techniques applied with respectto the user's prior activities may be applied to other types ofactivities.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system 100 according to some embodiments of theinvention and shows various functional components which will be referredto in the detailed discussion that follows. The system 100 may includeone or more clients 102. Each client 102 has a client assistant 104, aclient application 106 and client storage 108. The client 102 can be anyof a number of devices (e.g., computer, internet kiosk, personal digitalassistant, cell phone, gaming device, desktop computer, laptop computer)used to enable the activities described above. The clients 102 areconnected to a communications network 110. The communications network110 connects the clients 102 to a search system 112. Search system 112includes a query server 114 connected to the communications network 110,a user information database 116, other databases 117, and a queryprocessing controller 118.

The query server 114 includes a client communications module 120, aquery receipt, processing and response module 122, a user informationprocessing module 124, a preferred locations module 126 and a historymodule 128, all interconnected. The client communications module 120connects the query server 114 to the communication network 110 andenables the receipt of communications from the communication network 110and the provision of communications to the communication network 110bound for the client 102 or other destinations. The query receipt,processing and response module 122 is primarily responsible forreceiving search queries, processing them and returning responses to theclient 102 via the client communications module 120. The preferredlocations module 126 assists in determining a set of preferred locationsfor a user which may, in some embodiments, be based on combining theuser's preferred locations with the preferred locations from one or moreusers or groups. The history module 128 assists in allowing a user tosearch and/or browse the user's prior activities and can provide theresults of the search or browse alone or in combination with otherresults from a more generalized search. In some embodiments, the historymodule 128 is used to adjust the order of search results based on theuser's history. The user information processing module 124 assists inaccessing, updating and modifying the user information database 116. Theuser information database 116 stores various information about theuser's activities described above in a user record and/or a clientrecord. In addition, the user information database 116 may store derivedinformation about the user based on the user's activities. The otherdatabases 117 include other databases with which the various modules inquery server 114 may interact, such as a message database (electronic orotherwise), and user-created document databases (e.g., documents createdfrom word processing programs, spreadsheet programs, or other variousapplications).

In some embodiments, fewer and/or additional modules, functions ordatabases are included in the search engine 110. The modules shown inFIG. 1 as being part of search engine 110 represent functions performedin an exemplary embodiment.

The query processing controller 118 is connected to an inverse documentindex 130, a document database 132 and a query cache 134. The cache 134may include components such as an index, the function of which is tolocate cached result entries in the cache memory. The inverse documentindex 130 and document database 132 are sometimes collectively calledthe document database. In some embodiments, “searching the documentdatabase” means searching the inverse document index 130 to identifydocuments matching a specified search query or term.

Although FIG. 1 portrays discrete blocks, the figure is intended more asa functional description of some embodiments of the invention ratherthan a structural description of the functional elements. One ofordinary skill in the art will recognize that an actual implementationmight have the functional elements grouped or split among variouscomponents. For example, the user information database 116 may be partof the query server 114. In some embodiments the user informationdatabase 116 may be implemented using one or more servers whose primaryfunction is to store and process user information. Similarly, thedocument database 132 may be implemented on or more servers whoseprimary purpose is to store various documents. Moreover, on one or moreof the blocks in FIG. 1 may be implemented on one or more serversdesigned to provide the described functionality. Although thedescription herein refers to certain features implemented in the client102 and certain features implemented in the search system 112, theembodiments of the invention are not limited to such distinctions. Forexample, features described herein as being part of the search system112 could be implemented in whole or in part in the client, and viceversa.

FIG. 2 illustrates a process 200 which may be used in some embodimentsof the invention to monitor and/or record a user's various activities.Initially a user's activities are monitored (202) by any of a variety ofways such as by a locally resident program in the client 102 designed inwhole or in part to intercept or determine a user's activities (e.g.,client assistant 104). Such a program could also be part of the clientapplication 106 (e.g., browser, email program, instant messagingprogram), or available as a plug-in to the client application 106(provided, for example, from various on-line sources). The monitoringcould also be accomplished in conjunction with an application running ona device remote from the client 102. For example, a server-side programmay receive all or part of a user's activities with respect to aparticular service being offered (e.g., a search engine or other web orserver based application). As another example, a server-side componentmay record activities occurring on a thin-client type device. The user'smonitored activity is sent from the monitoring component (e.g., clientassistant 104) (204) to a processing component (e.g., search system 112)(206). In some embodiments, the monitoring component and the processingcomponent may be in the same device: in such cases, the sending andreceiving are optional.

The source identifier is determined (210) to identify the source of thereceived user activity so that it may be associated with an appropriateidentifier for possible storage in a user information database (e.g.,user information database 116). An identifier may be associated with auser and/or a client application. In some embodiments, a clientapplication identifier (e.g., a cookie value) is sent along with theinformation to identify a particular instance of a client assistant 104.In some embodiments, a user may be identified via a user identifier (ID)associated with a log-in service. In some embodiments, a search engineservice permits the user to associate one or more identifiers with eachother (e.g., a user may associate one or more instances of a clientassistant 104 with a user identifier). In these embodiments, the usercould use multiple client assistants 104 (e.g., one at home and one atwork) with or without needing to log into a log-in service.

A data type of the user information is then determined (218). The datatype is indicative of the type of event activity of the user which isbeing received. For example, in some embodiments, data types could beone or more of, but not limited to: queries submitted to a searchengine; requests submitted to a web service; search results from aresults page provided by a search engine, or selection of such searchresults (e.g., via click-throughs); advertisement impressions (i.e.,whether a particular advertisement was presented to a user);click-throughs on advertisements which may be presented in a number ofways such as presented on or associated with a content display (e.g.,but not limited to, a search results page, e-mail message display,instant message display, or other content to which advertisements may bepresented or associated); information that a particular user hasassociated with content (e.g., annotations and/or labels for one or morequeries, web pages, web locations, links, messages, documents or othercontent); product reviews; or any other user activities or events whichmay be monitored (e.g., a user's browsing activities, instant messagingactivity, chatroom activity, interactions with various applications suchas word processors, and so on).

In some embodiments, a user is provided with an opportunity toselectively subscribe to each of the various data types individually orcollectively. The user's subscription information for the identifieddata type is determined (220). If a user has not subscribed for the datatype determined at 218, then processing can cease. For example, if auser has unsubscribed to the data type for advertisement click-throughs(i.e., the user has indicated that the user does not want this type ofinformation recorded), then if such a data type had been determined at218, processing would stop at this point. In some embodiments, a defaultsubscription value is identified if a user has not yet expressed asubscription preference or if no subscription information exists. Insome embodiments, this default subscription profile maintains anincreased rather than decreased amount of user privacy (e.g., noinformation is stored). In some embodiments, a user may subscribe and/orunsubscribe to reads and/or writes of a particular data type. Forexample, a user may subscribe to reads (i.e., the information that isalready present may be read by various applications, such as those thatdetermine derived information), but unsubscribe to writes (i.e., no newinformation may be recorded). In this case, previous information wouldbe accessible to various applications (e.g., profile determination,search ranking, derived data), but new events would not be recorded.

Optionally, one or more parts of the system may provide a “snooze”function with respect to the monitoring and/or recording of the user'sactivities according to some embodiments of the invention. The snoozefunction permits the user to disable processing and/or recording of theuser's activities based on certain criteria. Alternatively, the snoozefunction could disable the monitoring of the user's activity altogether.In some embodiments, the snooze function disables processing (ormonitoring) of the user's activities for a period of time (e.g., 5minutes, 2 hours, etc.) which may be supplied by the system, chosen froma list presented to the user, or entered manually by the user. In someembodiments, the user may set a time in the future at which theprocessing (or monitoring) will resume (e.g., the following day, thenext time the application—e.g., browser—is started). In someembodiments, the processing (or monitoring) could be set to resume aftera period of activity or inactivity by the user. One of ordinary skill inthe art will readily recognize other possibilities. The snooze functioncan be implemented in the client 102, in the search system 112 in partin the client 102 and in part in the search system 112.

In some embodiments, the snooze function is incorporated into thesubscription conditions. For example, a snooze condition for aparticular data type may be implemented as a toggling of thesubscription condition during the snooze period. That is, during theperiod of the snooze, the user would be temporally un-subscribed fromthe data type if that user was previously subscribed. In someembodiments, the user may snooze any or all of the subscription optionsdescribed above (i.e., reads and/or writes for any of the data types).Accordingly, in some embodiments a user's selecting of a snooze willcause a change in the subscription condition for the period of thesnooze which would be identified at 220.

In some embodiments, a filter may be used to prevent certain events frombeing recorded despite their being part of a subscribed data type (222).For example, a filter may identify events belonging to a particulartopic or category of information (regardless of data type) and preventfurther processing of the event (e.g., events associated with adultcontent). In some embodiments, the filter criteria may be supplied bythe system either automatically, determined based on input from theuser, or a combination of the two.

If a subscription is enabled for the determined data type and the eventis not being filtered, then a data structure (e.g., user informationdatabase 116) is updated or new information is added as appropriate(224).

In some embodiments, some information associated with a user and storedin user information database 116 is derived from other informationpresent in the user information database 116 (e.g., data received at206). A derived information value may depend on one or more events fromone or more data types. If it is determined that one or more derivedinformation values are depended upon or derived in whole or in part fromthe data type of information received at 206, the affected derivedinformation values can be derived again using the new information (226).For example, in some embodiments, one or more portions of a user profile(e.g., a profile of categories and associated weights attributable to auser) are determined from an examination of search queries submitted bya user to a search engine. The receipt of a new query causes theaffected profile information to be derived again to take into accountthe newly received query information. In some embodiments, derivedinformation is derived in near-real time (e.g., shortly after received).In some embodiments, the derived information is derived periodically(e.g., hourly, nightly, or weekly). In some embodiments, the time atwhich information is derived depends on the particular derived valueitself (e.g., values that may be more sensitive to new information arederived more frequently than others). In some embodiments, othertriggers may cause re-determinations (e.g., user initiated actions,system removal of old events or derived information).

In some embodiments, a change in a user's subscription information willaffect derived information. In some embodiments, a change in thesubscription condition from subscribed to un-subscribed causes all theinformation associated with that data type to be made unavailable.Accordingly, all derived information is re-derived without theinformation. In some embodiments, a change in the subscription conditionfrom subscribed to un-subscribed prevents new information of that datatype from affecting the derived values (during the period ofun-subscription), but does not cause information prior to thesubscription change to be unavailable. Accordingly, the derivedinformation values will retain their value (to the extent depend on thepast, yet still available, values). In some embodiments, a change in thesubscription condition from un-subscribed to subscribed causes all theinformation associated with that data type to be available again.Accordingly, all derived information is re-derived with the availableinformation. In some embodiments, a change in the subscription conditionfrom subscribed to un-subscribed causes all the information associatedwith that data type to be made permanently unavailable.

FIG. 3 depicts an exemplary process 300 for implementing suchembodiments. Subscription information is received which indicates amodification to a user's subscriptions (302). The particular data typeis determined (304) and then the subscription condition for that datatype is changed (305). As mentioned above, the subscription conditioncan affect the reading out of and/or writing into the user informationdatabase 116 of the data type. Any derived information values thatdepend on this data type in some way (directly or indirectly) aredetermined (306). One or more of these affected derived informationvalues are then derived again based on the updated information. In someinstances a subscription change will cause a data type to be removedfrom derivations of values (i.e., the derived values are recomputedwithout the data type), and in some instances, the change insubscription information will permit one or more data types to be addedin derivations (i.e., the derived values are recomputed with the datatype). An availability condition associated with the data type ismodified in accordance with the subscription information (310). In someembodiments, the events associated with the data type for which a userhas unsubscribed are maintained in the user information database 1116.When a user unsubscribes from the data type, an availability conditionprevents selected application programs (such as those which searchcertain data types and those which determine derived information values)from being able to access the data type.

In some embodiments, a user can add, modify, or delete one or morediscrete events or pieces of information within a data type or acrossdata types, or other information associated with the user. For example,a user may delete a search query from the user's history. In anotherexample, a user may provide updated profile information (e.g., providingnew areas of interest, deleting areas of interest, or modifying animportance value associated with a particular area of interest). Inanother example, in some embodiments, a user may provide or modify aranking value associated with a particular item (e.g., a query, auniform resource locator (“URL”) or site, an advertisement, an e-mail, aproduct review, and so on). In some embodiments, the removal of an eventcauses the removal of other events. For example, in some embodiments,the deletion of a query results in the deletion of any result clicks orad clicks associated with the query. In some embodiments, the user maydelete a group of related events (e.g., events related by topic, a setof related queries, a set of related result clicks, and so on). Theevents and/or information affected by the user's actions, however, mayhave been used in whole or in part in the determination of one or morederived values (e.g., past queries and/or result clicks may be used to adetermine a user's profile or set of preferred locations). Modificationsor deletions of the events and/or information in some embodimentstriggers a re-derivation of the derived information.

FIG. 4 depicts an exemplary process 400 for reacting to updated userinformation (history, profile information, or otherwise). When an editto the user's information is identified (402), any directly affectedevents and/or values are identified and modified (404) in accordancewith the received information. Any affected derived information valuesare identified (406) and the derived information values are derivedagain in accordance with the modified information (408). The affectedderived information can be re-derived at various points in time similarto that described above (e.g., periodically, in near-real time, oroff-line batch).

FIG. 5 depicts an exemplary user record 500 from the user informationdatabase 116 according to some embodiments of the invention. In someembodiments, the user information database 116 contains a subset or asuperset of the elements depicted in FIG. 5. The user informationdatabase 116 contains a user identifier 502 which associates certaininformation in the user information database 116 to a particular user oruser identifier. In some embodiments, the user identifier 502 isassociated with a particular instance of a client application. In someembodiments, the user identifier is associated with a user. Some of theinformation which can be associated with a user includes event-baseddata 504, derived data 506, and additional data 508. Event-based data504 includes one or more events each of which has a data type associatedwith it. In some embodiments, event-based data includes: one or morequeries 510, one or more result clicks 512 (i.e., the results presentedin a set of search results on which the user has clicked); one or moread clicks 514 (i.e., the advertisements presented to the user on whichthe user has clicked); one or more browsing data 516 (e.g., whichlocations—e.g., a URL—a user visits; an image that the user views); andone or more product events 517 (e.g., searches for product reviews).Each event-based data 504 includes one or more elements relevant to theevent. For example, in some embodiments the events in the event-baseddata 504 includes either or both of an eventID 518 and a timestamp 520.The eventID 518 is a unique identifier associated with the particularevent which may be assigned by the search system in some embodiments(e.g., a 64-bit binary number). The timestamp 518 is a value (e.g., a64-bit binary number) representing the date and/or time at which theparticular event record in event-based data 504 was created or at whichthe particular event occurred.

In some embodiments, one or more of the query events 510, one or more ofthe result clicks 512, one or more of the ad clicks 514, and one or moreof the product events 517 include a query portion 520 which includeszero or more query terms associated with the recorded event. In someembodiments, the query portion indicates the query string to which theevent is associated (e.g., what query produced the results that the userclicked-though). In some embodiments, the query portion 520 includes apointer or identifier to the query event 510 associated with the resultclick or ad click (e.g., an eventID). In some embodiments, the queryportion 520 may additionally identify a “related query”. For example,the related query may be a query related to an initial query thatcontains a misspelling. In some instances is it more desirable toassociate the event with the corrected query rather than the querycontaining the spelling mistake. In some embodiments, the search system112 may generate “related queries” automatically based on the user'sentered query.

In some embodiments, one or more of the result clicks 512, one or moreof the ad clicks 514, and one or more of the browsing data 516 include acontentID 522 which identifies the content associated with theparticular event. For example, in some embodiments, the contentID 522 inad click event 514 represents a unique identifier of the particularadvertisement and in some embodiments, the contentID 522 identifies thelanding page associated with the advertisement. For a result click 512,the contentID can represent the URL which has been clicked on by theuser. For browsing event 516, the contentID 522 can be the contentidentifier used to identify the location of the browse event (e.g., URL,data location, or other similar identifier). In some embodiments, thecontentID 522 may be a document identifier which identifies a documentin a document repository.

In some embodiments, the event-based data has a history score 525. Anevent's history score 525 may be calculated in any of a number ofdifferent ways or combinations of ways. For example, the history score525 may be a time-based ranking value which may be periodically modifiedbased on a length of time that has passed since the event was recorded.In some embodiments, the value of the history score decreases as thetime from the recordation increases. In some embodiments, event datahaving a time-based ranking value below a threshold may be deleted. Thevalues can be determined and re-determined periodically at variouspoints in time. In some cases, removal of one or more events triggers are-determination of one or more derived values as described above. Insome embodiments, the history score 525 is determined in response to arequest instead of being determined during batch or off-line processing.

In some embodiments, the browsing events 516 indicate a particularbrowsing event not associated with a query, but instead, with some otheruser activity. This other user activity can be identified in aninformation field 526. For example, an advertisement presented andclicked on during an email session (e.g., with the Google Gmail service)would not necessarily have a query associated with it, but it may stillbe useful to keep track of the user's advertisement click-throughactivity. Accordingly, the user's event and associated activity would beidentified in the information field 526. In some embodiments, theinformation field 526 stores ranking values associated with the event.Such ranking values can be system generated, user created, or usermodified (e.g., PageRank for URLs, a value assigned to the event by theuser). Other examples of user activity include, but are not limited toinstant messaging, word processing, participation in chat rooms,software application execution and internet telephone calls.

In some embodiments, derived data 506 includes one or more informationfields 528 containing information derived from the event-based data 504.For example, in some embodiments, the information field 528 represents auser profile which is generated from one or more of the user's queryevents 510, results click events 512, ad click events 514, and browsingevents 516. For example, by examining one or more of the various eventsa user profile may be created indicating levels of interest in varioustopic categories (e.g., a weighted set of Open Directory Project(http://dmoz.org) topics).

In some embodiments, the derived data 506 includes data derived in wholeor in part from one or more users in a community of users. For example,a user profile for a community of users may be derived.

In some embodiments, the derived data 506 includes one or more pairs ofa score 532 associated with particular contentID 534. The score 532represents a derived score assigned to the content associated with thecontentID 534 (e.g., a web page). The score 532 can be based on one ormore of a number of different factors. In some embodiments, the score532 incorporates the number of times that a user has clicked on thecontentID over a period of time (which may include click throughs as aresult of search queries and/or browsing activities). In someembodiments, the score 532 incorporates a time that the user isestimated to have been looking at the content (a stay-time). In someembodiments, the score 532 incorporates a time since the user lastviewed the content. In some embodiments, the score 532 may be modifiedbased on user activities. In some embodiments, the score 532 isnegatively affected if the user is presented the content in a series ofsearch results, but fails to select the content from the results page.In some embodiments, the score 532 is positively affected when the uservisits locations or pages or clicks on results that are similar to thecontent. Similarity can be determined by a number of well knowntechniques (e.g., text classifier, ODP categorization, link structure,URL, edit distance, etc.). In some embodiments, a site is defined as alogically related group of pages, or physically related pages such aspages belonging to the same URL or related URLs. In some embodiments,the score 532 incorporates the number of past queries of the user forwhich the content was presented (e.g., a higher number of times certaincontent is presented to the user correlates with a higher score 532). Insome embodiments, the score 532 incorporates the number of past queriesof the user for which related content was presented (e.g., a highernumber of times related content is presented to the user as a result ofthe user's queries correlates with a higher score 532). In someembodiments, derived data 506 includes aggregate scores. For example,the same query may be generated by the user multiple times and in someembodiments each occurrence will have a different eventID. Accordingly,in some embodiments, an aggregate score is maintained for events whichoccur multiple times. The aggregate score can be computed by any of anumber of different methods. A reference to the multiple events and tothe aggregate score can be maintained in the derived data 506.

In some embodiments, additional data 508 includes more information aboutthe user (e.g., in one or more information fields 530) which is notnecessarily represented in the event-based data 504 or the derived data506. For example, in some embodiments, the user may annotate one or moreof a URL, a web page or a search query with keywords which may be usedby the user to provide certain information about the URL, web page, orquery. For example, a user might add keywords indicating that aparticular URL was helpful or pertained to certain information ofinterest to the user. In some embodiments, a user's search may be runagainst the annotations, alone or in combination with other information.An information field 530 may identify the annotation and the informationto which it pertains (e.g., an event identifier, a content identifier).In some embodiments, a user may indicate certain topics which may be ofinterest to the user; such topics may be stored in the information field530 (e.g., part of a profile). In some embodiments, a user may indicatea user-modified ranking value for a particular content (e.g., query,URL, site, advertisement) in an information field 530. In someembodiments, a user may indicate in the information field 530 aweighting function to be applied against a set of preferred content fromanother user, a community of users or of a particular topic of interestto the user. This weighting function can be used to combine the user'sset of preferred content with the set of preferred content from anotheruser, a community of users, or a set of content associated with aparticular topic which is of interest to the user. In some embodiments,information related to a particular event-based piece of data may belocated in an “other” field 524 and stored with the respective event inevent-based data 504. In some embodiments, the additional data 508includes one or more pairs of a queryID 538 and result 540 whichidentifies which results are associated with a particular query (e.g.,contentIDs that were associated with a user query). In some embodiments,the results 540 indicate which results were presented/displayed to theuser.

The user information database 116 (along with other databases 117) canbe used to provide a number of different features. For example, in someembodiments, the information in user information database 116 permitsthe user to perform searches on or to browse through the user's priorhistory (e.g., queries, ads). FIG. 6 depicts an exemplary process 600for searching a user's history according to some embodiments of theinvention. A search query is received (602), which contains one or moresearch terms to be run against the user's history in whole or in part.In some embodiments, the history includes the previously submittedqueries. In some embodiments the history includes the documents visitedin relation to a prior query (i.e., a result click through). And, insome embodiments the history includes a combination of the two. In someembodiments, the history includes other events such as adclick-throughs, and in some embodiments general browsing information notnecessarily or directly related to a particular query is included in theuser's search history. In some embodiments, the user is permitted toselect various portions (or combinations thereof) of the history againstwhich to run the search.

The user and the user's information in the user information database 116is identified (604) in accordance with the portion of the historyagainst which the search is to be run. The user may be identified basedon information which may be included in the search query, such as acookie identifier and/or a user identifier from a log-in service. Insome embodiments, the user information is identified by examining thoseevents 504 from the user information database 116 associated with aparticular user identifier 502. In some embodiments, information fromderived data 506 and/or additional data 508 is examined.

The relevant user information is then searched for matching and/orrelevant events in accordance with the search query and data type(s) ofinterest. The search query may be altered (e.g., by expanding,modifying, adding, or removing query terms) in order to identifyadditional matching or relevant information. Well known stemmingoperations can be performed on certain search terms (e.g., includingplural forms of singular terms). Conspicuously misspelled terms can becorrected in (or added to) the search query. The matching and/orrelevant events are identified by any of a number of well known searchtechniques. For example an event may be treated as a vector of items,and relevancy can be determined based on a vector distance between theitem vector and a vector created from the query, which produces a queryscore. A higher query score corresponds to one measure of relevancy(e.g., a higher query score indicates a higher level of relevancy to thequery). Relevant items may be ordered and/or grouped in accordance withvarious criteria. In some embodiments, multiple event types are returned(e.g., queries and advertisements) which can be optionally groupedtogether (608). For example, in some embodiments, a search produces alist of previous queries and a list of advertisements that the user hadpreviously visited. In some embodiments, the identified queries arepresented differently from the identified ads (e.g., in different partsof the results window). In some embodiments, locations visited as aresult of a search query (e.g., result clicks) are also returned and aregrouped in accordance with the queries which produced the results. Oneor ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that searches can beselectively run against any or all of the information in userinformation database 116.

Identified events and/or information may be ordered in accordance withvarious ranking criteria. In some embodiments, URLs are ranked accordingto an importance factor (e.g., a PageRank value). In some embodiments,queries are ordered in accordance with how closely the previous querymatches or is relevant to the submitted query (e.g., by an edit distancebetween the two queries). In some embodiments, multiple ranking criteriaare used simultaneously. For example, when queries and results clicksare returned and are grouped together, the queries can be rankedaccording to how recently the previous query was submitted, and therespective result clicks associated with the various queries can beranked in accordance with their respective PageRanks. The user may bepresented with a number of different options for searching the user'shistory. One skilled in the art will readily recognize variouscombinations of rankings and event types that fall within the scope ofembodiments of the invention. Various combinations are provided below asexamples. Finally the ordered response is provided to the client (612).

FIG. 7 depicts an exemplary process 700 for searching the prior historyin accordance with some embodiments of the invention. A history searchquery is received (702) which contains one or more search terms. In someembodiments, information is also sent identifying what type of historysearch is to be run and/or how the results are to be presented. In someembodiments, the information specifies against which (one or more) ofthe data types the search is to be run (e.g., past queries, past adclicks, past ad clicks and queries, past browsing). In some embodiments,the information indicates a level of synthesis, or grouping, to beapplied to the returned results. For example, queries (and associatedclick results) could be grouped based on a particular user session(i.e., within a searching or browsing session, those queries which arerelated to each other would be grouped together) or across multiplesessions. Related queries from a user's prior queries may be identifiedby a number of known clustering techniques (e.g., related terms,temporal relations, queries related to certain topics). Likewise, resultclicks and/or browse events can be grouped according to variouscriteria.

Query related information is then identified from the received query(704). In some embodiments, this related information represents one ormore topics to which the query belongs (e.g., topics such as those foundin the Open Directory Project (http://dmoz.org/)). In some embodiments,this query information is used to assist in searching for relevantinformation from the user's information in the user information database116. For example, in some embodiments, the search is based on the topicand not the actual query terms and in some embodiments both the queryterms and the topic are used together.

According to some embodiments, a browsing session is defined as abounded period of time during which the user carries out a series ofrelated or unrelated searching and/or browsing activities. For example,a browsing session could be defined as a day, or perhaps a period ofsearching or browsing activity between two longer periods of inactivity.In many instances a user's activities that are temporally related duringa session also tend to be topic related (e.g., a user searches forinformation on food poising for a period of time after lunch). In someembodiments, a browsing session can be defined by other criteria. Insome embodiments, related queries during a particular browsing sessionare identified as a query session (706). Here and elsewhere in thespecification it should be understood that when queries are identified,other events associated with those queries may also be identified (e.g.,result selections, advertisement selections). Additionally, the variousevents may also be grouped as part of a browsing session by beingrelated according to other criteria which may or may not be related to aquery (e.g., the user examines locations which are sports related). Insome embodiments, identified query sessions from one browsing sessionmay be combined with one or more query sessions, identified as related,from one or more other browsing sessions to form a session group. Insome embodiments, the identification of query sessions and sessiongroups occurs offline and the information regarding the query sessionsand session groups is stored in the user information database 116 (e.g.,in derived data 506). In some embodiments, the identification occurswhen the user submits a search query against the user historyinformation. In some embodiments, the grouping information could becreated and temporarily maintained for a particular length of time(e.g., one day). Frequent session identification and processing permitsrecently submitted queries and other information to be included. In someembodiments, an initial query session and session group identificationcould be created at some fixed (e.g., the first time the user uses theservice) or periodic (e.g., monthly) point in time, and then modifiedincrementally based on more recent browsing activity. In someembodiments, categories can be associated with a query session, orsession groups, such as one or more Open Directory Project topics.

Relevant query sessions or session groups are then identified (708). Insome embodiments, relevant query sessions or session groups areidentified by applying the search query to all or a portion of the setof information included in the query session and/or session groups. Theset of information included in a query session includes, but is notlimited to, one or more of the queries, query categories, eventdescriptions, events (e.g., result selection, advertisement selection),text associated with the event (e.g., the URL text, snippet and so on)and the content associated with the selection of the event (e.g., thecontent located at the URL, the landing page of the advertisement). Ifany portion of the query session against which the query is run isrelevant the search query, then the query session is a candidate forpresentation to the user. In some embodiments, when a particular querysession is identified, the entire session group to which the identifiedquery session belongs becomes a candidate for presentation to the useras a result. Candidates for presentation are ordered in accordance withvarious ranking criteria (710). In some instances, only the N highestranked candidates are provided in the response, where N is an integerchosen based on various system features. Ranking criteria can be basedon any number of factors such as how closely the identified informationin the query session (or session group) is relevant to or matches thehistory search query. Ranking could also be based on a time/date valuefor the query session (i.e., query sessions and/or session group couldbe ordered in accordance with a date/time of the session). In someembodiments, session groups are treated with a date/time value of themost recent query session included in the session group.

In some embodiments, the information within the query session and/orsession group is ordered (712). In some embodiments, event types aregrouped and the ordering within a particular event type is based onvarious ranking criteria. In one example, queries in the query sessionare grouped and ranked in accordance with a similarity to the historysearch query and the result clicks in the query session are grouped andranked in accordance with a PageRank of the URL. In another example,queries in the query session are ranked in accordance with how recentlythe query was submitted and the result clicks in the query session areranked in accordance with a query score based on how closely the contentof the click-through is relevant and/or matches the history searchquery. In another example, result clicks could be ranked according torankings provided by other users or communities of users. In someembodiments, the information within a session group is ordered by querysessions, wherein the ordering of query sessions may be based on anynumber of criteria. In some embodiments, the event information within asession group is ordered without reference to an individual querysession using any of the above ordering techniques. One of ordinaryskill in the art will readily recognize other ways to order theinformation without departing from the scope of the invention. Afterordering, the N highest ranked results are returned to the searchrequestor (714). In some embodiments, the results are presented to theuser in a number of smaller page units, each page unit containing asubset of the total number of candidates. The techniques described areeasily extended to groupings which do not include queries (e.g., relatedlocations, related ads).

In some embodiments, a user is provided an option to see informationrelated to various items (e.g., query, result, advertisement) displayedto the user. For example, a user may choose a link or icon associatedwith a result returned as part of search request (run against a documentrepository and/or against the user's history). Selecting the link oricon causes the system to identify and return information related to theitem. For example, in some embodiments, the user is presented with otheritems which are similar to the selected item. In some embodiments,related information for a query includes the three queries submittedprior to the query and the three after. In some embodiments, selecting aresult click for related information causes other queries (submitted bythe user and/or others) which produced the result to be displayed.

FIGS. 8A and 8B provide exemplary screenshots of query sessions andsession groups according to some embodiments of the invention. Referringto FIG. 8A, a window 802 includes three query sessions 804, 806 and 808.As illustrated in FIG. 8A, the query sessions are grouped by date (e.g.,date 810) although other groupings are possible. Within the querysession 804 are a query portion 812 and a results portion 814. The queryportion 812 includes one or more related queries (determined as outlinedabove) submitted during the query session. The results portion 814includes zero or more results that the user clicked through to. Theresults portion 814 may also include an access time 816 indicating thetime that the user accessed the result on that day. In some embodiments,the query portion 812 includes a related history link 818, which, whenselected by the user will cause zero or more query sessions related toquery session 804 to be displayed. The related query session may be fromthe date of the query session 804 or may be from other dates.Accordingly, a user is presented with a query/result history for a setof related queries that may include query session from different days.FIG. 8B illustrates an exemplary session group display, of which aportion might be generated by, for example, selecting the relatedhistory link 818. As illustrated in FIG. 8B, a window 820 includes twosession groups 822 and 824. In some embodiments, the session groups 822and 824 are not generally related. In these embodiments, if they wererelated, they would be in the same session group (having been determinedto be related). The session group 822 includes a query portion 826 and aresults portion 828. The query portion 826 includes those queries in thequery sessions determined to be related (as described above). Since theresults in the results portion 828 may include results examined onmultiple different days, the results portion 828 includes an access date830 indicating on which date the result was last accessed. In someembodiments, the number of times that the user has accessed the resultis included. In some embodiments, this number includes any browsing thatthe user did. In some embodiments, the results portion includeslocations not related to a query session, but instead determined to berelated based on the content of the location. In some embodiments, thesession group includes other related information.

In some embodiments, a user may browse the user's history. Theinformation from the history may be displayed in any number of ways. Forexample, a user may display the history by date, by topic, or byfrequency. In some embodiments, the query sessions and/or sessionsgroups are displayed as discussed above. In some embodiments, groups ofrelated events by sessions and/or sessions groups are displayed asdiscussed above. For example, a topic-based display of the user'shistory would display those query sessions and session groups associatedwith particular topics. It should be noted that the techniques describedabove in reference to searching are readily applied to browsing a user'shistory. For example, a request to display a user's history by group issimilar to generating a search where all query groups match.

Some embodiments of the invention can modify a user's search experiencefor searches other than those searches primarily of the user's prioractivities. FIG. 9 depicts a process for adjusting a set of searchresults based on the user's historical behavior stored in userinformation database 116. Initially a search query is received (902) bythe search engine which runs the query against the document repository(904). After the results are received (906), the search results areadjusted in accordance with information from the user's history (908).In some embodiments, the order of the search results is adjusted. Insome embodiments, a search result's presence or absence in the set ofsearch results is affected by the user's history in user informationdatabase 116 (e.g., a result present in the user's history may be addedto the set of results presented to the user). In some embodiments, theorder of the search results is adjusted in accordance with the historyscore 525 and/or any user-modified result score. In some embodiments,the search result score and the history score are combined and the setof search results is reordered based on the combined score.

In some embodiments, an indication is provided to the user of thelocations (e.g., URL results) that are previously visited, regardless ofwhether the search results are reordered. Examples of indicationsinclude, but are not limited to, providing a visual and/or textualindicator on or near an individual search result for which the user hadpreviously visited. In some embodiments, the indicator includes the dateand/or time of the last visit. In some embodiments, the indicatorincludes the number of times that the user has visited the site within acertain period of time (e.g., three months).

In some embodiments, the M most highly ranked results (e.g., three) thatthe user has previously visited are displayed in a region above thesearch results. In other embodiments, they are displayed in otherpredefined regions of the display or in a separate window. In someembodiments, the M previously visited locations are ordered inaccordance with various ranking criteria (e.g., history score, PageRank,time of last access, number of accesses). In some embodiments, the Mpreviously visited locations are not included within the set of searchresults (i.e., they are removed from the set and displayed in their ownregion). In some embodiments, the M previously visited locations whichare not on the current page of search results are displayed in apredefined region on the current page. In some of the alternativeembodiments described earlier, query sessions and/or session groupscould be displayed along with the search results and ordered asdescribed above in relation to FIG. 7.

In some embodiments, search results which have been presented to theuser in the past and on which the user has clicked are boosted higher inthe set of search results. In some embodiments, a user's browsing eventsare considered in addition to, or in lieu of, past presentation andclick through of a particular search result. For example, in someembodiments, a location previously visited by the user will have itsscore boosted, where the magnitude of the boost is related to the numberof times the user has visited the location. Conversely, in someembodiments, a search result which was previously presented to a userbut not clicked through is demoted in the set of search results.

In some embodiments, the set of search results is not reordered, but ahistory score, such as history score 525, is used in determining whethera result is provided with a visual indicator (e.g., color,highlighting). For example, a result with a high history score is markedin yellow and a result with an ultra high history-score is marked inyellow and bold.

In some embodiments, a result's location in the order of search resultsis boosted higher in the order if the user has visited or clicked onresults from related sites or pages.

In some embodiments, past queries can also affect a document's place inthe order of search results. For example, the number of past queriesthat retrieve (or relate to) a given result can be taken into account(as well as how long ago they occurred etc.). For example, a resultwhich is associated with a large number of queries can be boosted.

In some embodiments, a user's history is used to identify additionalsearch results. For example, results in the user's history that are notin the current retrieved set, but that were retrieved by similar queriesare added to the set of search results. In some embodiments, theadditional results are placed in a different screen area different thenthe initially identified set of search results.

In some embodiments, the search results are adjusted by suggestingadditional queries. For example, similar queries that were previouslysubmitted by the user are suggested. Query similarity can be calculatedin many ways (e.g., edit distance, stemming operations, correction ofobviously misspelled words, semantic mapping, similarity of theretrieved document sets).

In some embodiments, queries are suggested from the user's history whichwere submitted immediately following or preceding the query at issue, inthe same query sessions or session group.

In some embodiments, the techniques described above are applied acrossdocument source repositories. For example, when a user issues a websearch and a similar search has been performed in the past for productreview, a user is presented with an option to run the query in a productreview repository. In some embodiments, the top results (e.g., three)from the product review repository are presented.

In some embodiments, a user is presented with the ability to filterresults based on various criteria and/or using the information availablein user information database 116. For example, a user can choose toremove from presentation results not previously seen. In anotherexample, a user can request to see results whose content has changedsince the user last performed this query or visited the result site.

FIG. 10 is an exemplary screenshot illustrating results found from auser's history in a window 1002. The window 1002 includes a search textbox 1004 into which a user inputs a search query (e.g., “Princeton”) anda search button 1006 which the user selects to begin the search. Theresults are returned in two areas: a history area 1008 and a mainresults area 1010. The exemplary history area includes a history result1012. The history result 1012 includes a link 1014 to the location ofthe result, a frequency indicator 1016 and a date indicator 1018,indicating the number of times that the user had visited the locationand the date of the last visit, respectively. In the main results area1010, one of the results is illustrated with an accompanying dateindicator 1020. In some embodiments, one or more frequency indicatorssuch as frequency indicator 1016 are present in the main results area1010, if applicable. In some embodiments, a “related information” link1022 is included with one or more results in the history area 1008and/or the main results area 1010. When a user selects the “relatedinformation” link 1020, the system responds by presenting the user withinformation related to the result. In some embodiments, the relatedinformation includes, but is not limited to one or more of: queries thatgenerated the result (from the user and/or others); user visitinformation for the location; and similar pages visited by the user inthe past.

In some embodiments, advertisements that the user previously visited maybe indicated. In some embodiments, these advertisements are indicated inone or more ways similar to result selections as described above. Insome embodiments, the user is permitted to search the user's pastadvertisement selections independent of previous search queries and/orresult selections.

A user's search history may be presented to the user graphicallyaccording to some embodiments of the invention. FIG. 11 provides oneexemplary graphical display 1100. The display 1100 includes visualindicators of searching activity over a period of time 1102 (e.g., amonth) by a sub-unit of time 1104 (e.g., a day) along with a key 1106 tothe visual indicators. In the display 1100 the intensity of a color (orgrayscale) associated with the sub-unit of time corresponds to thevolume of search activity within the sub-unit (e.g., a higher intensitycorresponds to more activity than a lighter intensity). In someembodiments, a plurality of different visually distinctive indicatorsare used each representing a distinctive or mutually exclusive intensitylevel of searching activity. For example, one visually distinctiveindicator would correspond to a level of searching activity equal tozero to 100 events and/or weighted combination of events and anothervisually distinctive indicator would correspond to a level of searchingactivity equal to 101 to 1000 events and/or weighted combination ofevents; and so on. In some embodiments, the visually distinctiveindicators could be rectangles in a bar graph whose height or width isrelated to the level of searching activity. In some embodiments, a sizeof the visually distinctive indictor is related to the level ofsearching activity. In some embodiments, a different color is used torepresent each of the plurality of visually distinctive indicators. Oneor ordinary skill in the art will recognize other ways to visuallydisplay a volume of a user's search activity without departing from thescope of the present invention (e.g., using different colors instead ofcolor intensity). In some embodiments, a user may select the data typesor events for which a graphical display will be generated (e.g.,queries, advertisements, results clicks, content locations visited).

In some embodiments, a user may select and expend the visuallydistinctive indicator for a sub-unit of time, for example, by clickingon the visually distinctive indicator for that sub-unit of time. Suchselection results in an expanded view of the sub-unit of time. In someembodiments, the selection results in another graphical display whichuses the selected sub-unit as the new unit of time display and asub-unit of the new time unit as the sub-unit of the display. In someembodiments, the expanded view is a listing and/or grouping of thesearch activity for the selected unit of time. For example, when theselected sub-unit of time is a day, selecting the day for expansion fromthe display results in a listing and/or grouping of the user's searchingactivity for that day. The searching activity could be displayed in anumber of different ways. For example, in some embodiments, thesearching activity is displayed according to type (e.g., queries, resultselections, advertisement selections, product reviews, visited webpages). In some embodiments, the display can include various displays ofa user's previous historical activities, as described previously.

FIG. 12 depicts a process 1200 for generating a graphical display f auser's history according to some embodiments of the invention. A requestfor the graphical display is received (1202) and the user's history isidentified (1204). The number of events for each sub-unit of time (e.g.,day) is identified for each of the units of time (e.g., month) 1206 andthe event time period display is created (1208). Finally, the timeperiod display is provided to the user (1210).

In some embodiments, other ways to graphically display the volume ofhistory activity are provided. In some embodiments, the events used tocreate the graphical display are filtered by various criteria (e.g.,query similarity, content similarity, or event type). In other words,the graphical display can display the volume of activity for any of anumber of activities. In one example, only those queries which match anentered query and/or are similar to the entered query are selected increating display. Thus, a user can enter a particular query and from thegraphical display visually determine on which days the user wassearching for queries similar to the entered query. In some embodiments,the visual indicator may indicate how closely a day's queries match theentered query (e.g., by color). In another example, the events can befiltered by event type. In some embodiments, a user is provided with theability to choose any of the various items which might be displayed(queries, results, query sessions, session groups, advertisements,product reviews, browsing event); such selection would cause a graphicaldisplay to be created using the selected item to filter the historicaldata. In some embodiments, a weighting function is applied to thevarious event types to determine the activity volume for a given timeunit. Accordingly, in these embodiments, a one-to-one correspondencebetween activity volume and events does not necessarily exist. Forexample, in one embodiment, each result click-though is assigned aweighting value of 1.0 and each ad click through is assigned a weightingvalue of 0.5. The representative activity volume counts the eventsaccording to the modified weights. In some embodiments, information fromother databases 117 can be added to the set of information available forgraphical display. For example, in some embodiments, a user could seethe volume of emails and/or messages related to a particular topic. Insome embodiments, multiple graphical displays are presented to the user(e.g., one based on filter criteria and one based on total activity). Insome embodiments, the multiple graphical displays may be graphicallyaligned over each other.

In some embodiments, the user information database 116 is used toprovide a set of preferred locations to the user. The set of preferredlocations is identified from the set of the user's prior visits andordered according to various criteria. In some embodiments, the user'sset of preferred locations includes one or more advertisements. In someembodiments, the user is provided with a set comprising only preferredadvertisements. In this way, the user need not necessarily remember toexplicitly identify a content location (e.g., location, advertisement)as preferred, or as a favorite, because the system will implicitlyidentify the user's preferred locations. In some embodiments, the useris provided various ways to modify individual or group rankings,identify preferred types of locations or affect the selection andordering. In some embodiments, a user's set of preferred locations maybe combined in various ways with other sets of preferred locations suchas those from other users, groups of users, associated selected topicsof interests, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, a user isprovided various options for sharing the user's set of preferredlocations with others. For example the user can select who or whichgroups have access to the user's set of preferred locations. In someembodiments, the user may prevent certain locations from being shared aspart of the user's preferred locations. In some embodiments, the usermay be presented with a request from another user to share the user'spreferred locations which must be explicitly acknowledged for thelocations to be shared.

FIG. 13 depicts an exemplary process 1300 for identifying a set ofpreferred locations according to some embodiments of the invention.Initially a request for preferred locations is received (1302). The userfor which the request is made is identified and the applicable recordsin the user information database 116 are identified (1304) (e.g., viauser identifier 502). Relevant events are identified from the userinformation database 116 depending on the type of preferred locations ofinterest for the request (1306). For example, a user might be interestedin the set of preferred locations from any locations that the user hasvisited for any reason; any advertisement landing page that the user hadvisited; any advertisement that the user had clicked on and so on. Oneof ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the techniquesdescribed herein could readily be applied to creating a set of preferredevents based on one or more of the data types and events stored in userinformation database 116. The identified events are then ordered inaccordance with one or more ranking values (1308). In some embodiments,one or more of the following criteria are used to rank the events:frequency of visit within a predetermined period of time (e.g., threemonths); the date of the last visit to the location; an importance valueof the location (e.g., PageRank); ranking values provided by the userfor the location; a similarity score between the location and a user'sprofile information; or other information. In some embodiments, thepreferred locations are grouped by one or more various categories (e.g.,topic; date of visit; location; annotation).

As mentioned earlier, a user is provided, according to some embodiments,with the ability to view locations associated with preferredadvertisements. In some embodiments, when a user has clicked on anadvertisement more than a threshold number of times (e.g., two), thenthe landing page of the advertisement is included in the list ofpreferred locations. In some embodiments, the list of preferredlocations associated with advertisements is presented to the userdifferently from other types of preferred locations (e.g., in a separatepart of the display window). In some embodiments, the list of preferredlocations associated with advertisements is ranked and displayed alongwith other types of preferred locations.

In some embodiments, a “stay-time” value for a location is used whenranking a location in the list of preferred locations which is stored inthe information field 526 of a browsing event 516. In some embodiments,a stay-time value is simply one of the factors used to rank the list ofpreferred locations. A stay-time value may be treated as a proxy of thelocation's importance to the user (i.e., the longer a user stays orbrowses at a location, the more likely the user is to be interested inthe location). In some embodiments, the client assistant 104 determinesstay-time values from monitoring the user's activities of how long auser stays at a particular location. In some embodiments, the browsinginformation is transmitted to the search engine 110 which determines thestay-time values. In some embodiments, stay-time is determined byobserving the time from when a URL is clicked-though on a results pageto when another result is clicked-though from the results page.

In some embodiments, a visit score is used in whole or in part to rankthe preferred locations. In some embodiments an instance visit score iscreated for each visit to a page. The total visit score for a page isthe sum of all the instance visit scores. In some embodiments, aninstance visit score decreases in value as the date of the visit becomesfurther away in time. In some embodiments, an instance score is providedas a maximum score minus a value, wherein the magnitude of the valueincreases as the length of time since the visit increases.

In some embodiments, a user's set of ranked preferred locations isdetermined when the user requests the preferred locations. In someembodiments, the set is determined periodically (e.g., nightly) andmaintained in the user information data base 116. In some embodiments,the set is determined upon the first request of a time period (e.g.,day) and maintained in the user information data base 116 for the timeperiod. In some embodiments, a stored set is incrementally updated basedon user information received after the set was determined and initiallystored.

In some embodiments, a user may modify one or more ranking values for apreferred location. In some embodiments, the ranking values are storedin information field 526, or in information fields 528 or 530, andassociated with a location. In some embodiments, the user can increaseor decrease the ranking values. Accordingly, an associated location willrise (or fall) in the ranked list in accordance with the modifiedranking value. In some embodiments, the modification is temporary (e.g.,for the current browsing session). A user may be provided various waysto modify the ranking values. In some embodiments, the user may edit ascore which represents the ranking value. The user may overwrite,delete, or otherwise change the score in a score input box presented tothe user when the user selects the location from the set of preferredlocations (or uses other manners of selecting). In some embodiments, theuser can force a high or low ranking value such as a ceiling or floorfor a location. In some instances a user may visit a location often butnot wish the location to appear in the set of preferred locations (or atleast not appear very high on the list)—in this case the user can setthe associated ranking value low. In some embodiments, the user modifiesa weighting factor to be applied against the ranking value. Theweighting factor could be stored in information field 526, or ininformation fields 528 or 530, and associated with a location. Forexample, the user selects a 0.5 value indicating that the ranking valuefor the location should be multiplied by 0.5 prior to the ranking. Inthese embodiments, the user does not directly affect the determinationof a location's ranking value, but instead affects the final rankingorder. In this way, the ranking values for locations can be determinedwithout resort to the user's desired modifications until the locationsare finally ranked. In some embodiments, the user is presented with asliding bar which the user can use to adjust the weighting factor up ordown as desired.

FIG. 14 depicts an exemplary process 1400 for handling a user modifiedranking for a location according to some embodiments of the invention.Initially a user selects a content location (e.g., URL, site, ad) (1402)and modifies the ranking value or a weighting factor (1404) using any ofthe techniques described above. The user information database 116 isupdated (1406) to reflect the information from 1404. Any subsequentrequest for the set of preferred locations will take into account theupdated information. In some embodiments, the set of preferred locationsis re-determined upon receipt of a new or modified ranking value.

As mentioned above, in some embodiments, a user may associate one ormore keywords with a content location (e.g., URL, advertisement). Suchkeywords may be stored in user information database 166, for example. Insome embodiments, the keywords are indexed such that a search may beperformed on the annotations which will return matching and/or relevantlocations in accordance with the associated keywords. In someembodiments, a user may arbitrarily associate various items ofinformation together (e.g., by providing a “label” to be associated withselected items of information). For example, a user may apply a label toone or more e-mail messages. In some embodiments, a user may apply thelabel to other activities or events (e.g., a location). Thus, a search(or browse) based on a keyword associated with the label can return theitems which the user has associated with the label.

In some embodiments, a user's set of preferred locations may be combinedwith one or more preferred locations from other users, or groups ofusers. In some embodiments, the set of preferred locations includes oneor more of result click-throughs, ad click-throughs, visited web pages,and product reviews. In some instances the set of preferred locations tobe combined with the user's is associated with a group of users. Forexample, a group of users can be identified from social networks,newsgroups, mailing lists, workgroups, learning groups and so on. A setof preferred locations may also be identified with a particular categoryof information such as the ODP categories (e.g., a set of preferredlocations associated with the “dog” category) or include certainlocalization information (e.g., locations associated with a particulargeographical location). In some embodiments, the set of preferredlocations from others are locations determined in accordance with one ormore of the techniques described above. In some embodiments, the set ofpreferred locations from others are locations pre-selected based onvarious criteria.

In some embodiments, a privacy model is applied to the user'sinformation. The privacy model indicates which information of the userthe user is willing to have shared and to whom and under whatconditions. For example, a user might not be willing to share emailmessages in an embodiment in which the system generates a set ofpreferred information for the user's group that includes email messages.The same user, however, may be willing to share the user's visitedlocations.

FIG. 15A depicts an exemplary process 1500 for combining one or moresets of preferred locations according to some embodiments of theinvention. Initially the user's set of preferred locations is identified(1502) as well as the set(s) to be combined with the user's set (1504).Any applicable weighting factors are also identified (1506). In someembodiments, a user may select weighting factors to be applied to all oreach of the sets to be combined. The weighting factors would affect howthe ranking values of the other sets are used to order the combined set(1507). For example, a user may indicate that a higher weighting factorbe applied to preferred sets from the user's close associates than froma mailing list. In some embodiments, the weighting factor for a set ismultiplied against the ranking values of the set to be combined into theuser's set. The combined set thus reflects the weights assigned by theuser. Note that for the members in a group, the combined set ofpreferred locations as presented to each member would most likely bedifferent due to the member's own preferred locations and the user'sselection of weighting factors to be applied to other sets of preferredlocations.

In some embodiments, the locations in the other set of preferredlocations may not have directly associated ranking values. In theseinstances, ranking values can be obtained from other sources (e.g.,PageRank values), or each of the locations in the set can be assigned adefault ranking value in accordance with its location in the set (e.g.,a location higher in the list is accorded a default ranking value higherthan a location lower in the list). Alternatively, the sets could beinterleaved with the set of the user's preferred locations in any numberof ways.

Finally, the set is provided to the user (1508). The storage of thecombined list (if at all) can be accomplished using any of thetechniques described above (e.g., storing the combined list in userinformation database 116).

FIG. 15B depicts a process for creating a combined set of preferredlocations for a community of users. Initially, each of the sets ofpreferred locations is identified (1510). The sets may be identified byfirst determining each of the users in the community of users for whichthe combined set is being created. In some embodiments, the set ofpreferred locations includes one or more of result click-throughs, adclick-throughs, visited web pages, and product reviews. Weightingfactors are identified (1512). The weighting factors identify a weightto be applied to each of the sets. For example, a weight for aparticular user may be associated with a trust or importance valueassociated with that particular user. Using the weighting factors, thesets are combined (1524) (e.g., in manners similar to the combiningoperations described above). In some embodiments, one or more topicallyrelated sets of preferred locations can be combined with the userpreferred locations. For example, if the community of users isassociated with a particular topic (e.g., golden retrievers), a set oflocations associated with the topic can be combined with the userpreferred locations. The typically related locations, in someembodiments, have a respective weighting factor as well. In someembodiments, a community of users' preferred locations are re-determinedwhen a new user is added to the community.

In some embodiments, the user may search the set of preferred locationsand/or combined sets of preferred locations based on any number ofcriteria (e.g., by one or more query terms or other information). Thesearch criteria is applied against the set of preferred locations, andthe relevant locations from the set of preferred locations are rankedusing one or more of the various raking techniques discussed above andreturned to the user (including but not limited to taking into accountuser modified rankings or weights). This provides the user with theability to search the user's prior history and overlay any one of anumber of various ranking techniques to improve the user's searchresults. In some embodiments, the various ranking techniques areprovided as selectable options in a preference setting (e.g., a boxindicating an option to rank locations by the number of previousvisits). In some embodiments, the various ranking techniques areprovided as selectable options on a query input page. In someembodiments, both techniques can be used.

In some embodiments, a user's set of preferred locations (identified asdescribed above) may be combined with the user's set of bookmarkedlocations (i.e., those locations which the user has identified using a“bookmark” feature of a browser). A weighting function could be used tocombine the sets.

Though described in reference to preferred locations and combiningpreferred locations, the above techniques may equally be applied toother types of information or events for the user. For example, the setof items determined as belonging to a set of preferred information for auser according to some embodiments of the invention include one or moreof e-mails, instant messages, software applications, images, contactbook entries or any other type of user activity. In response to acommand to identify the user's set of preferred information, the systemcan return a set of preferred information that includes anything thatthe user accesses. A user in some embodiments is presented with a set ofpreferred information that includes frequently accessed emails, softwareapplications, queries, and locations. Any of the techniques describedabove, including but not limited to determining, ranking, modifyingrankings, and combining preferred sites can be applied to or incombination with one or more of these other types of user activities.

In some embodiments of the invention, a user may associate one or moreclient applications and/or client assistants with a central useraccount. This permits the user to accumulate browsing and searchinginformation from more than one machine and/or more than one type ofbrowser. FIG. 16 depicts an exemplary process 1600 that permits a userto associate multiple client applications and/or client assistants. Insome embodiments, a client identifier is associated with a particularinstallation of a client application (e.g., a browser). In someembodiments, a client identifier is associated with a particularinstallation of a client assistant (e.g., a toolbar associated with abrowser). The following discussion is applicable to either sets ofembodiments even though the discussion, only refers to a clientidentifier associated with a client application for simplicity purposes.

Initially a user logs on to a service located at a central server(1602). Such a service could be accessible via any number of ways, suchas via a client application and/or client assistant. A unique identifierassociated with the client application is detected and sent to thelog-in service (1604). In some embodiments, the identifier is stored ina cookie associated with the client application. Upon receipt, it isdetermined whether the identifier is currently associated with a useridentifier (1606), where the user identifier is associated with the userwho has logged-in to the service. If the client identifier is notassociated with the user identifier (1606—no), then a determination ismade whether to offer to the user the option to associate the clientidentifier with the user identifier (1608). In some embodiments, a usermay be prevented from associating more than a predetermined number ofclient identifiers to any user identifier within a period of time. Insome embodiments, a user is limited to associate only a predefined totalnumber of client identifiers at any given time. Such a condition mayprevent an individual from attempting to associate a large number ofclient applications to a single user identifier. If the conditions tooffer to associate are not met (1608—no), the browsing informationgenerated while the user remains logged-in is recorded and associatedwith the user identifier (1610), but the client identifier is notassociated with the user identifier.

If the conditions to offer to associate are met (1608—yes), then theuser is presented with the option to associate the client identifierwith the user identifier (1612). If the user chooses not to associatethe client identifier with the user identifier (1612—no), then theclient identifier is not associated with the user identifier, but thebrowsing information generated while the user remains logged-in isrecorded and associated with the user identifier (1610).

If the user does decide to have the client identifier associated withthe user identifier (1612—yes), then the client identifier is associatedwith the user identifier (1614). There may be certain conditions underwhich the user may be permitted to merge or migrate previous activityassociated with the client identifier that occurred prior to theassociation (1614) with the user identifier. If the conditions are met,then an offer to merge is presented to the user (1616). In someembodiments, user activity associated with a client identifier ismaintained in memory for a period of time (e.g., 3 to 7 days). In someembodiments, when the client identifier is newly associated with theuser identifier, the conditions are met and the user is provided withthe option to merge the previous activity (1616).

In some embodiments, the service keeps track of the last time that theuser merged the browsing activity associated with the client identifiercurrently associated with the user identifier (1606—yes) and if apredetermined amount of time has passed since the last merge, then theconditions are met.

If the user chooses not to merge the previous activity (1616—no), theinformation generated while the user remains logged-in is recorded andassociated with the user identifier (1610). If the user does decide tomerge (1616—yes) then the activity associated with the client identifieris merged with the activity currently associated with the useridentifier (1618). In some embodiments, the information is copied into arecord associated with the user identifier. In some embodiments, a linkis provided linking the stored information associated with the clientidentifier to the user identifier. The information generated while theuser remains logged-in is recorded and associated with the useridentifier (1610).

In some embodiments, once a client identifier is associated with a useridentifier, then any time activity associated with the client identifieris noticed it is automatically associated with the user identifierregardless of whether the user is logged in to the service or not. Insome embodiments, the activity associated with the client identifier isrecorded and associated with the user identifier only while the user islogged in to the service.

In some embodiments, a user is provided an ability to remove anassociation between a client identifier and a user identifier. In someembodiments, when the user disassociates a client identifier from a useridentifier, the previously associated browsing information related tothe client identifier is retained, and in other embodiments, thepreviously associated browsing information is removed. In someembodiments, the removal of the browsing activity triggers there-determination of derived values as described earlier.

Referring to FIG. 17, a client system 102 typically includes one or moreprocessing units (CPUs) 1702, one or more network or othercommunications interfaces 1704, memory 1706, and one or morecommunication buses 1708 for interconnecting these components. Theclient system 102 may include a user interface 1710, for instance adisplay 1712 and a keyboard 1714. The memory 1706 may include high speedrandom access memory and may also include non-volatile memory, such asone or more magnetic or optical storage disks. The memory 1706 mayinclude mass storage that is remotely located from CPUs 1702. The memory1706 may store the following elements, or a subset or superset of suchelements:

-   -   an operating system 1716 that includes procedures for handling        various basic system services and for performing hardware        dependent tasks;    -   a network communication module (or instructions) 1718 that is        used for connecting the client system 102 to other computers via        the one or more communications interfaces 1704 (wired or        wireless), such as the Internet, other wide area networks, local        area networks, metropolitan area networks, and so on;    -   a client application 106 as described above;    -   a client assistant 104, which includes a monitoring module 1722        for monitoring the activities of a user, and a transmission        module 1724 for transmitting information about the user's        activities to and receiving information from the search system        112; and    -   client storage 108 as described above.

Referring to FIG. 18, a search engine 1800 typically includes one ormore processing units (CPUs) 1802, one or more network or othercommunications interfaces 1804, memory 1806, and one or morecommunication buses 1808 for interconnecting these components. Thesearch engine 1800 may include a user interface 1810, including adisplay 1812 and a keyboard 1814. The memory 1806 may include high speedrandom access memory and may also include non-volatile memory, such asone or more magnetic or optical storage disks. The memory 1806 mayinclude mass storage that is remotely located from CPUs 1702. The memory1806 may store the following elements, or a subset or superset of suchelements:

-   -   an operating system 1816 that includes procedures for handling        various basic system services and for performing hardware        dependent tasks;    -   a network communication module (or instructions) 1818 that is        used for connecting the search engine 1800 to other computers        via the one or more communications interfaces 1804 (wired or        wireless), such as the Internet, other wide area networks, local        area networks, metropolitan area networks, and so on;    -   a query server 114 for responding to and processing        communications from the client 102; and    -   a user information database 116 for storing information about        users as described in reference to FIGS. 5A and 5B.

In some embodiments, the query server 114 includes the followingelements, or a subset of such elements: a client communications module120 for receiving and transmitting information; a query receipt,processing and response module 122 for receiving and responding tosearch queries; a history module 128 for processing and handlingrequests for searching a user's history; a user information andprocessing module 124 for accessing and modifying the user informationdatabase 116, which includes one or more user records including a useridentifier 502, event-based data (including query information 510,result clicks information 512, ad clicks information 514, and browsinginformation 516), derived data 506 (which includes one or moreinformation values 528), and additional data 508 (which includes one ormore information values 530). In some embodiments, the query server 114includes a subset of these modules. In some embodiments, the queryserver 114 and/or the user information database 116 include additionalmodules.

The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has beendescribed with reference to specific embodiments. However, theillustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or tolimit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modificationsand variations are possible in view of the above teachings. Theembodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the invention and its practical applications, to therebyenable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention andvarious embodiments with various modifications as may be suited to theparticular use contemplated.

1. A method for using a set of historical activities to modify aresponse to a search request, comprising: receiving a submitted searchquery from a search requester; obtaining search results relevant to thesubmitted search query from a document repository, each search resulthaving an associated search result ranking value; identifying at leastone of the search results as having been returned to a previous searchrequester in response to a previous search query; modifying theassociated search result ranking value of the identified search result;and ordering the obtained search results in accordance with the modifiedsearch result ranking value.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein thesearch requester and the previous search requester are the same user. 3.The method of claim 1, wherein the search requester and the previoussearch requester belong to a community of users.
 4. The method of claim1, wherein the modifying includes increasing the associated searchresult ranking value if the previous search requester had previouslyselected the identified search result.
 5. The method of claim 2, whereinthe associated search result ranking value is increased in proportion tothe number of times the previous search requester has visited a pageassociated the identified search result.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein the modifying includes decreasing the associated search resultranking value if the previous search requester did not previously selectthe identified search result.
 7. A method for using a set of historicalactivities to modify a response to a search request, comprising:receiving a submitted search query from a search requester; obtainingsearch results relevant to the submitted search query from a documentrepository; identifying a respective history score for a plurality ofthe search results; and modifying a display of the search results inaccordance with the history scores.
 8. The method of claim 7, whereinthe modifying the display of the search results includes identifying atleast a portion of the search results having a respective history scoregreater than a threshold.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein themodifying the display of the search results further includes modifying adisplay characteristic of the identified portion of the search resultsin accordance with the history scores.
 10. The method of claim 7,wherein the modifying the display of the search results includes:identifying a number of the search results having a highest respectivehistory score; displaying the identified search results in a firstdisplay area; and displaying a plurality of the search results in asecond display area.
 11. The method of claim 7, wherein the identifyingthe respective history score for a one of the plurality of searchresults includes identifying pages that a previous search requester hasvisited that are similar to a page associated with the one of theplurality of search results.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein thesearch requester and the previous search requester are the same user.13. The method of claim 7, wherein identifying the respective historyscore for one of the plurality of search results includes identifying anumber of times that a previous search requester has visited a pageassociated with the one of the plurality of search results.
 14. Themethod of claim 7, wherein identifying the respective history score forone of the plurality of search results includes identifying a time thata previous search requester has visited a page associated with the oneof the plurality of search results.
 15. The method of claim 7, whereinidentifying the respective history score for one of the plurality ofsearch results includes identifying a similarity score between a profileof a previous search requester and a page associated with the one of theplurality of search results.
 16. The method of claim 7, wherein theidentifying the respective history score for a one of the plurality ofsearch results includes identifying a number of past search querieswhose search result included the one of the plurality.
 17. A method forusing a user's historical activities to enhance a set of search results,comprising: receiving a submitted search query from a search requester;obtaining current search results relevant to the submitted search queryfrom a document repository; identifying a previously submitted querysubmitted by a previous search requester, the previously submitted querybeing similar to the submitted search query and having previous searchresults; identifying a previous result in the previous search resultsnot included in the current search results; and returning the currentsearch results and the previous result to the search requester.
 18. Themethod of claim 17, wherein the returning includes: associating thecurrent search results with a first display area; and associating theprevious result with a second display area.
 19. A method for modifying aset of search results, comprising: receiving a search request from asearch requester; identifying a set of relevant search results;receiving a filter request from the search requester; filtering thesearch results in accordance with the filter request and the user'sprevious computing activities; and returning the filtered search resultsto the search requester.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein the filterrequest is for viewing results not previously visited, and the filteringincludes removing from the set of relevant search results, those resultswhich have been previously visited by the search requester.
 21. Themethod of claim 19, wherein the filter request is for changed results,and the filtering includes removing from the set of relevant searchresults, those results which have not changed since a previous time thatthe search request was submitted by the search requester.
 22. A methodfor enhancing search results, comprising: receiving a submitted searchrequest from a search requester; identifying a set of search resultsfrom a document repository; identifying from a set of history eventsrelevant to the submitted search request; and returning the set ofsearch results and at least one of the identified history events to thesearch requester.
 23. The method of claim 22, wherein the set of historyevents are generated by a community of users.
 24. The method of claim22, wherein the returned history event is an advertisement.
 25. Themethod of claim 22, wherein the returned history event is a productreview.
 26. The method of claim 22, further including returning at leastone other identified history event, where the returned history eventsare advertisements.
 27. The method of claim 22, wherein the returnedhistory events comprise one or more of advertisements, product reviews,search results, visited web pages and queries.
 28. A computer programproduct for use in conjunction with a computer system, the computerprogram product comprising a computer readable storage medium and acomputer program mechanism embedded therein, the computer programmechanism comprising: instructions for receiving a submitted searchquery from a search requester; instructions for obtaining search resultsrelevant to the submitted search query from a document repository, eachsearch result having an associated search result ranking value;instructions for identifying at least one of the search results ashaving been returned to a previous search requester in response to aprevious search query; instructions for modifying the associated searchresult ranking value of the identified search result; and instructionsfor ordering the obtained search results in accordance with the modifiedsearch result ranking value.
 29. A computer, comprising: a main memory;a processor; and a program, stored in the main memory and executed bythe processor, the program including instructions for: receiving asubmitted search query from a search requester; obtaining search resultsrelevant to the submitted search query from a document repository, eachsearch result having an associated search result ranking value;identifying at least one of the search results as having been returnedto a previous search requester in response to a previous search query;modifying the associated search result ranking value of the identifiedsearch result; and ordering the obtained search results in accordancewith the modified search result ranking value.
 30. A system for using aset of historical activities to enhance a search request, comprising:means for receiving a submitted search query from a search requester;means for obtaining search results relevant to the submitted searchquery from a document repository, each search result having anassociated search result ranking value; means for identifying at leastone of the search results as having been returned to a previous searchrequester in response to a previous search query; means for modifyingthe associated search result ranking value of the identified searchresult; and means for ordering the search results in accordance with themodified search result ranking value.